What’s Hot!: Collect all of our Long Beach Grand Prix winners cards

Quickly. Name the winners of the past 39 Long Beach Grand Prix. If you’re like us, you can’t even recall the last three Super Bowl winners. Our recollections of past races roar right out of our head at 91.945 mph, which, coincidentally, was American racer Danny Sullivan’s average speed in his Galmer Chevrolet/Ilmor when he won the race on April 12, 1992, snapping Al Unser Jr.’s four-race win streak here.

Yeah, we’re a bit of an expert now, because we have the entire set of Long Beach Grand Prix winners cards that we’re kicking off today and continuing with a new race-winner for the next 38 days right up to the 40th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach race weekend, April 11-13.

You’ll get the Formula 5000 race (actually, you get that one today), then the Formula One years, including the great win by Mario Andretti in 1977, then the later CART races and winners — again, Mario in 1985, then Michael Andretti in 1986, then Mario again in ’87, then a bunch of Little Al Unser wins — and on to the IndyCar races that fired up in 2009.

You’ll want to collect ’em all.

Each day, in chronological race order we’ll run a picture of the winning car on the Long Beach track, bio information on the driver, car chassis and engine type, average speed and more. Additionally, there’ll be a brief narrative of the race, including second- and third-place racers.

By the time you’ve clipped and read the whole set, you’ll be an expert on the Grand Prix’s glorious history in time for race day, making you a big hit in the hospitality tent.

For onliners, you’ll also be able to see the info in slide-show form. However, as our tech guy tells us, one car does not make a very interesting slide show. But check out the cards as we progress toward the big event in mid-April. Visit www.presstelegram.com/grandprix-winners